The Higher Learning Commission, a Chicago-based non-profit that accredits universities and colleges, told the school it no longer meets accreditation requirements, threatening its ability to offer a master of architecture degree, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation said Thursday.

The school, with locations at Taliesin West in Scottsdale and Taliesin in Wisconsin, will retain its accreditation through 2017. But it must find an accredited institution to partner with in the next 2 1/2 years to offer an advanced architecture degree and maintain accreditation, said Sean Malone, foundation president.

"I'm disappointed. I'm frustrated," Malone said. "That said, I'm not worried about there not being any interest in a partnership. I can think of a handful of (institutions) off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are 20 or 30 I haven't thought of."

Malone said an academic partnership is possible before the next accreditation cycle in 2017 so that the school never loses its ability to offer a master of architecture.

The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture embraces the “learning by doing” philosophy of Wright. Students are show this spring redesigning the “Lotus Shelter” first erected at Taliesin West in Scottsdale in 1963.(Photo: David Wallace/The Republic)

The current accreditation crisis was brought on by HLC policy changes adopted in 2012 that "accredited institutions must be separately incorporated from sponsoring organizations," said John Hausaman, the HLC's public information officer.

"This would require the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, which is not currently separately incorporated, to file for incorporation as an institution with a primary purpose of offering higher education," Hausaman said.

Malone said that move was "not appropriate."

"The school would not only have full control of the money and the governing, but the foundation would be required to guarantee well over seven figures and have to guarantee this funding with no direct government or operational control," Malone said.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation operates the school, where students split their time at Wisconsin's Taliesin and the complex of low-slung wood and concrete buildings at Scottsdale's Taliesin West. It also oversees the preservation of Taliesin West, Taliesin and oversight of Wright archive collections in New York City.

The school's staff and current master's students, who began fall semester earlier this month, will not be effected by the change. They were informed of the school's status Thursday.

The school has only been accredited the last 22 years of its history, which dates to the establishment of the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932. It faced loss of accreditation in 2005, when the HLC put it on notice, and enrollment in the small but renowned school dipped in the two years following this. The school's accreditation was reaffirmed in 2007. The School of Architecture's accreditation was again reaffirmed in 2012.

The National Architectural Accrediting Board, the agency that evaluates all U.S. master's degree programs in the field, requires HLC accreditation. A master of architecture is needed for an architect to be licensed.

The key factor in the school, which draws about two dozen students from all over the world to live on the Wisconsin and Scottsdale campuses, encompasses Wright's ideas, in particular his "learning by doing" philosophy.

The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house built for David and Gladys Wright in Phoenix. Michael Schennum / The Republic